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New research published in the journal Nature Communications, has demonstrated how glass can be manipulated to create a material that will allow computers to transfer information using light. This development could significantly increase computer processing speeds and power in the future.
The research by the University of Surrey, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the University of Southampton, has found it is possible to change the electronic properties of amorphous chalcogenides, a glass material integral to data technologies such as CDs and DVDs. By using a technique called ion doping, the team of researchers have discovered a material that could use light to bring together different computing functions into one component, leading to all-optical systems.
"The challenge is to find a single material that can effectively use and control light to carry information around a computer. Much like how the web uses light to deliver information, we want to use light to both deliver and process computer data," said project leader, Dr Richard Curry of the University of Surrey.
"This has eluded researchers for decades, but now we have now shown how a widely used glass can be manipulated to conduct negative electrons, as well as positive charges, creating what are known as 'pn-junction' devices. This should enable the material to act as a light source, a light guide and a light detector - something that can carry and interpret optical information. In doing so, this could transform the computers of tomorrow, allowing them to effectively process information at much faster speeds."
The researchers expect that the results of this research will be integrated into computers within ten years. In the short term, the glass is already being developed and used in next-generation computer memory technology known as CRAM, which may ultimately be integrated with the advances reported.
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/features/new-research-lights-way-super-fast-computers
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 07 2014, @07:46PM
http://xkcd.com/678/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday November 07 2014, @08:04PM
> send information around the world at the speed of light, but these signals then have
> to be converted to electrical signals once they reach a computer, causing a significant slowdown in processing.
The conversion is really fast. It actually applies at line rate (I know, odd, right?).
The problem that slows down the processing is to take these 25Gb/s streams down to a rate at which meaningful electronic processing can happen (without LH2 cooling). The serial-to-parallel adds latency, and each registering stage in the parallel domain adds more. The width of the bus adds an upper limit on processing clocks, even with the insanely fast transistors that we have today.
State clearly that you have developed optical transistors _switching_ faster than electronic transistors or GTFO.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Gravis on Saturday November 08 2014, @06:24PM
State clearly that you have developed optical transistors _switching_ faster than electronic transistors or GTFO.
faster transistor != faster computer
computers could be much faster than what we use today if we didn't have the issue of heat but we do. getting rid of the heat problem would change sooo much. right now the issue is the cost of manufacturing optical processors, it's wicked expensive. even if we had a 10MHz optical switch but manufacturing was nearly free, we would simply use a wider bus and a larger instruction set. furthermore, if we expand into three dimensions, we could have gigabytes of registers.
processor evolution is much more complex than just getting the faster transistor.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cafebabe on Saturday November 08 2014, @01:03AM
A man called Richard Curry
worked in a place called Surrey.
By ion doping
his team are hoping
to signal in more of a hurry.
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